Microsoft announced a new long-term offtake agreement with energy infrastructure investment manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Denmark-based waste-to-energy (WtE) company Vestforbrænding, for the delivery of nearly 3 million tons of carbon removal generated through a new large-scale carbon capture and storage project at a WtE facility in the greater Copenhagen region.
Under the new agreement, starting in 2029, Microsoft will offtake the full volume of carbon removals generated from the Gaia project, a joint venture between CIP and Vestforbrænding to retrofit an existing waste-to-energy facility in Glostrup, Denmark with one of the first large-scale carbon capture facilities in Europe. The facility will use industrial-scale amine technology to capture carbon dioxide, in which CO2 will be absorbed from flue gas using amine-based solvents, capturing more than 95% of CO2, which will be transported and permanently stored.
According to CIP and Vestforbrænding, the new facility is expected to capture approximately 500,000 tons of biogenic and fossil CO2 annually at full scale, with the Carbon Removal Units (CRUs) generated from the project representing the biogenic portion. The companies added that the project will also allow the facility to expand its district heating capacity, supplying heat to an additional 10,000 homes.
Steen Neuchs Vedel, CEO of Vestforbrænding, said:
“The offtake agreement with Microsoft is a defining milestone for the Gaia project. It not only validates the technical and commercial maturity that Vestforbrænding has worked hard to establish but also reflects how this maturity has been further strengthened through CIP’s entry into the project. It affirms the strength of our partnership with CIP and demonstrates why we chose to join forces—combining our operational expertise with their ability to scale and deliver complex infrastructure.”
The agreement marks the latest in a series of large-scale carbon credit deals by Microsoft, by far the largest corporate buyer of carbon removal credits globally, including another waste-to-energy carbon capture-based transaction in June, and two other multi-million-ton deals announced by the company in just the past month.
Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft, said:
“Gaia’s approach of retrofitting waste-to-energy facilities—in combination with the enforcement of the EU Waste Framework Directive—helps unlock more carbon-free energy while ensuring waste prevention and recycling remain top priorities. We’re pleased to see experienced developers like Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, through its Energy Transition Fund entering the carbon removal market and look forward to ongoing collaboration.”
Nikos Samaritis, Managing Director at CIP’s Energy Transition Fund (CI ETF I) added:
“We are proud to work alongside Microsoft for the sale and purchase of permanent carbon removals. This agreement, through Gaia, marks the first agreement between CIP, through CI ETF I, and Microsoft and we are optimistic it represents the start of a long-term relationship between the parties. The agreement is also significant for CIP as it represents the first offtake transaction by CIP for environmental attributes (e.g CRU), signaling CIP’s growing role in the development of new environmental products and technologies.”
